Kukla's Korner Hockey

This much we know: that Horatio Skeete, the acting city manager for the City of Glendale, told councillors there in an in-camera meeting earlier this month the deal was to have been completed by Thursday and it was not.

That news is coming amid claims by one industry source the deal is, in fact, dead and Jamison has not been able to raise the money to purchase the team from the NHL. It was reported in early August Jamison, the former CEO of the San Jose Sharks, had come up with the final $20 million he needed to fund the $170 million purchase of the team from the NHL. (According to our source, Jamison had to come up with $70 million toward the purchase price.)

Nothing has been heard since then and if Jamison were to have all his financial affairs in order to purchase the team, wouldn’t things have moved forward in the almost two months since then? The only thing that has really happened since then is captain Shane Doan signing a four-year, $21.2-million contract, but that was more necessitated by the impending lockout than it was a reflection of the status of the Coyotes. To this point, neither a deal has been reached between Jamison and the City of Glendale to restructure the team’s lease with the Jobing.com Arena nor has Jamison purchased the team from the NHL, which has been operating it since 2009.

One member of the NHL’s board of governors reached by THN.com said he hasn’t heard anything one way or another on the status of the Coyotes purchase, but said he doubts the deal with Glendale will ever get done.